Use when writing Terraform.
48
51%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
—
No eval scenarios have been run
Passed
No known issues
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./terraform/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
22%Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.
This description is extremely minimal — it only provides a bare trigger ('writing Terraform') with no explanation of what the skill actually does. It lacks concrete actions, comprehensive trigger terms, and any detail that would help Claude confidently select this skill over others. The single strength is that 'Terraform' is a recognizable, specific technology keyword.
Suggestions
Add concrete actions describing what the skill does, e.g., 'Generates Terraform configurations, writes modules, defines providers, and structures infrastructure-as-code projects following best practices.'
Expand trigger terms to include natural variations like 'HCL', '.tf files', 'infrastructure as code', 'IaC', 'cloud provisioning', 'terraform modules'.
Add a more detailed 'Use when...' clause, e.g., 'Use when the user asks to create, modify, or review Terraform configurations, HCL files, or infrastructure-as-code definitions.'
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | The description contains no concrete actions at all — it doesn't say what the skill does with Terraform (e.g., write modules, configure providers, manage state). It is entirely vague about capabilities. | 1 / 3 |
Completeness | It provides a 'when' clause ('Use when writing Terraform') but completely lacks a 'what does this do' component. The 'when' itself is also very thin with no elaboration on specific scenarios or triggers. | 1 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | It includes 'Terraform' which is a natural keyword users would say, but misses common variations and related terms like 'infrastructure as code', 'IaC', '.tf files', 'HCL', 'terraform plan', 'terraform apply', 'cloud provisioning'. | 2 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | 'Terraform' is a fairly specific technology domain which helps with distinctiveness, but the lack of detail about what the skill actually does means it could overlap with general coding or infrastructure skills. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 6 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
79%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This is a solid, well-structured Terraform best practices skill that is concise and highly actionable with good HCL examples. Its main weaknesses are the lack of workflow guidance around the plan/apply cycle with validation checkpoints, and the fact that all content is inline without progressive disclosure to separate files for cloud-specific security guidelines or advanced patterns.
Suggestions
Add a brief workflow section covering the terraform init → validate → plan → apply cycle with explicit validation checkpoints (e.g., 'Always review plan output before applying').
Consider splitting cloud-specific security guidelines (AWS, Azure) into separate referenced files to improve progressive disclosure and keep the main skill focused.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The content is lean and efficient throughout. It assumes Claude knows Terraform fundamentals and doesn't waste tokens explaining what resources, modules, or providers are. Every section delivers actionable information without padding. | 3 / 3 |
Actionability | Provides concrete, executable HCL code examples for naming conventions, conditional patterns, and stable referencing with for_each. The patterns section includes both the recommended approach and the anti-pattern with clear explanations of why. | 3 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The skill covers best practices and patterns rather than multi-step workflows, so explicit validation checkpoints are less critical. However, there's no guidance on plan/apply workflow, no mention of `terraform validate` or `terraform plan` as verification steps before applying changes, which would be valuable for a Terraform skill. | 2 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The content is well-organized with clear section headers and a logical flow from best practices to naming to structure to patterns to security. However, the security guidelines section (especially cloud-specific subsections) and the patterns section are getting lengthy and could benefit from being split into referenced files. No bundle files exist to offload detail. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 10 / 12 Passed |
Validation
100%Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.
Validation — 11 / 11 Passed
Validation for skill structure
No warnings or errors.
310ca43
Table of Contents
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